March 3, 2001

Auburn University officially retired Charles Barkley’s number 34 basketball jersey. Affectionately nicknamed “the Round Mound of Rebound,” Barkley played three seasons at Auburn University as he earned three All-SEC selections, won the 1984 SEC Player of the Year award, and led the university to its first NCAA Tournament appearance. Barkley was selected fifth overall in the 1984 NBA Draft and went on to play 16 seasons, winning the league’s Most Valuable Player Award in 1993 and two Olympic gold medals as the leading scorer on the “Dream Team.” He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and works as an NBA analyst. In 2017, Auburn University unveiled a statue of Barkley in front of Auburn Arena.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Charles Barkley attended Auburn University in the early 1980s, playing for the basketball team and earning the Southeastern Conference’s Player-of-the-Year award in 1984. Although he played only three seasons for the Tigers, he is the school’s seventh leading rebounder and is listed among Auburn’s top 20 scorers with 1,183 points. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Auburn University)

Charles Barkley was chosen as the Southeastern Conference Player of the Decade for the 1980s by the Birmingham Post-Herald. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Auburn University)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.